Wordini

by Thad S.
(St. Louis, MO)

Wordini can be highly addictive, is extremely social, and absolutely hilarious! Wordini is also flexible - great for parties, road trips, and suitable for 3 or more people ages 12 and up! Wordini will help build vocabulary and foster creativity.

To play Wordini, you'll need the following:

Score tokens: these can be pieces of paper, fake money from another board game (denomination does not matter), coins, or anything else that is easily counted

Timer/stopwatch

Twelve small slips or scraps of paper, folded in half to conceal what is written on them: Six shall be blank, One will have "4" written on it, one will have "5" written on it, one will have "6" written on it, one will have "7" written on it, one will have "Challenge" written on it, and one will have "Challenge Pass" written on it.

The game's length is usually 15-20 minutes, but can vary based upon the desired score set by the game's players.

The first player (decided at random) will start with the first letter of the alphabet and also draw a slip of paper. If the paper is blank, the player will start the game by declaring a word beginning with the letter "A" that is three letters long.

The next player would shout a word beginning with the last letter of the first player's word that is four letters long.

The next player would respond with a five letter word starting with the second player's last letter of their word. For example, if player one started with "Art", the next players word would be "Town", the next would be "North", and so on. Each player as they successfully complete their turn would take a scoring token to keep score.

The round ends when someone cannot complete their turn. A turn is usually limited to 30 seconds, but whatever length can be chosen by the game's players.

If a player is able to take their turn and rhyme the previous word, they get 2 scoring tokens.

If a player chooses a slip of paper that has "4","5", "6", or "7", that player must come up with that many words in the same fashion. No one else will take a turn besides the person who drew the card. If they fail, no scoring tokens will be taken. If they succeed, they get 2 scoring tokens.

If the slip of paper says "Challenge", the player who pulled that slip must choose another player to play a round with exclusively. Whichever player that cannot finish their turn must give up two scoring tokens.

If the slip says "Challenge Pass", the person who drew the card will give to another player who may choose someone else to challenge. The original person who pulled the slip is immune from being chosen.

The game is over when a player reaches the score set by the players (50 is a good place to start), or the alphabet is exhausted. The winner is the person who reaches the score amount or finishes with the highest amount of scoring tokens!

A few fun twists on this game:

Penalize players for reusing words by paying a scoring token (when they're caught by another player!)

Additional scoring tokens for a third or fourth rhymed word in a sequence

Give players an option to score additional tokens by using a word starting with the previous player's first letter (i.e. - Player One:"Art" Player Two: "Tram" Player Three:"Trout" - player three gets an additional scoring token).

There are many ways you can modify Wordini to your game's players or liking - have fun with it!